Cultural capital = tell me more

[whiskeytangofoxtrot]

So I keep reading about what private education gives you over state is cultural capital. I think I have an idea about this but interested in MNers pov.
tia

Cultural capital is a sociological term referring to the skills, norms and values learned within the family and therefore based on the parents skills and experiences and how they have brought up the children above all other factors. the family's environment will also come into play ie leafy suburbs, neighbours all in work, aspirations etc ECG. This cultural capital is brought into the school and plays an enormous part in how well the child does compared with those with less cultural capital. In this scenario what happens within school is less of an influence

Apologies to everyone who knows this already but a fab way of increasing their "cultural capital" relatively cheaply is this new - amazing- trend of live screening theatre and opera in your local cinema. In the first week of March for ex, you can see both the RSC loves labours won and the royal national opera la Boheme. It is so brilliant - I now prefer it to seeing Shakespeare in the Theatre - (not that we ever made it to Stratford) because you can see all the facial expressions - and you get all the really interesting intros and interview talk - eg about how the set was built etc. a truly great innovation.

La Boheme - my least favourite opera. Right bunch of freeloaders they all are - Mimi, the lot of them.
Give me a good earful of Wagner any day foul personal politics, wonderful music

But yes, live casts to regional cinemas are a good thing

Yes, a very good thing.

For us to buy theatre tickets (if one can get them, if they're a hot ticket), travel up to London, have something to eat etc etc would cost ££££££.

But I still think "cultural capital" should be on the school curriculum. I think children/teens need it thrust upon them and if their parents don't have the inclination then they're stuffed. Eg I know probably about 100 hymns and carols and many of these off by heart. My family was not in the least religious and never bothered a church, but at school assembly every day throughout my schooling we sang. To get the same experience for my dcs I'd have to be a churchgoer or rank everyone round the piano every day (not happening!). Jeanette Winterson makes this point in her autobiography: the working classes improved their language through pressurised church attendance. Worshipping at the altar of a shopping mall on a Sunday just doesn't offer the same opportunities for self-improvement.

at all the replied. I had never expected this level of discussion about all of this.
So what sort of things do we think fall into these categories, then?

Understanding of art, music, opera, film (notwithstanding the oscar stuff a la Mrs Stephen Hawkings upthread)
Matters of etiquette? HKLP etc?

Knowing how to address people ?
Knowing what to do at the polo/art gallery etc?
Knowing how to do small talk?

Where does church going fit into this Brenda??

Because by osmosis we get to experience beautiful language. It doesn't matter about church/religion... who knows what the words of Jerusalem actually mean? It saddens me that the dcs have never belted out, "He who would valiant be..." In fact that hymn is relevant to anyone - it's about reaching your goals. I'm sure schools would love that!

Church is about understanding the poetry of language and ceremony.
I don't believe a word of it
but oddly the modern words of the Lords Prayer wind me up whereas the traditional words glide past.
Its about understanding how to hide your true feelings so as no not insult others
which is of course the ULTIMATE skill they teach at top boarding schools

What I detest is the casual instrumentality of the term cultural capital. As if the value of the norms and habits you pass to your children primarily have value because of what they contribute to some kind of social "balance sheet" or how they help them claw their way up the social scale. Yeuch.

Tbh I had never heard of it until about 3 weeks ago when I read it on MN.

I suppose I am just trying to work out what it is I gained from private education and what came from my family, what I should be addressing from home and what I can/should expect from a state school and where any "gaps" might be...
All this a massive amount of food for thought tbh

Yes but have you noticed how much of the focus nowadays is in "capital" this that or the other, as if things don't have a value in and of themselves? It infects everything.

I realise this is a bit of a side alley, but what exactly is it about holding your knife like a pen that's supposedly so terrible? Is it simply a social marker, or is there some reason for it?

Figment Are you not a fan of Trollope? (Anthony)

Or Henry James?

Or Kenneth Grahame?

The possession and use of cultural capital is surely as natural to every human being as the colour of their eyes or the size of their feet?

figment

There are plenty of skills, qualifications, pieces of knowledge and tastes that are lovely/useful/imperative to have in and of themselves.

Our lives are full of them. They add to the sum of our personal existence.

But they cannot be converted into real capital (usually).

That doesn't mean they're of no benefit. Or that anyone is encouraged to throw them to the wind.

But what we're talking about here are skills, qualifications, pices of knowledge and tastes that can be converted into real capital. Now you can poo-poo that all you like and feel all terribly uncomfortable discussing it, but frankly that only disadvantages those who have the least valuable cultural capital.

That group have the most to gain by understanding what cultural capital is the most valuable and how to get access to it.

Word this is true. But when I was reading this thread it reminded me of Stefan collini's fantastic collection of essays -2012- what are universities for? Protesting the current need to reduce absolutely everything to "how will it improve my transferable skills?"

Zero - sure - in a class-ridden society, we've been driven since the dawn of civilisation to build codes and cultural signals that are designed to privilege the few who understand them - to control who is in and who is out. But this thread is talking about identifying - and transferring - cultural "capital", not just as an end in itself but as a means of accessing privilege and increasing wealth. It's maybe also interesting to pick responses to the last great experiment in institutionalising the transfer of cultural capital - the grammar school system - viz Lucky Jim, Room at the Top, Look Back in Anger etc

Just google Pierre Bourdieu and all will be revealed.

Or, even better, read La Distinction.

I don't mind being in a "class-ridden society". I know that I can't transcend class but future generations can. I'd much rather be defined by class, which can change, than clan / tribe / caste, which are immutable.

Oh my, Room At The Top. Now you're talking.

When my sibling decided to move into my DF's study all the books therein were transferred to a huge walk in cupboard close to my bedroom. When I discovered RATT in the highest dustiest corner I guessed my parents hadn't intended it for my immediate consumption. For as long as it took to read I used to sneak it out late at night and put it back every morning while everyone else was having breakfast. I must have been about 10.

(There isn't a point to that ramble ...)

My parents were superbly educated first generation immigrants who each separately arrived, as adults, knowing more about England than a large proportion of the people they met here. I was the only child in my otherwise "native" class who was taken to museums and galleries. And they took it for granted that I would go to the very best university I could get in to. (We used to watch the Boat Race ...) And I never, ever heard that such and such was "not for the likes of us".

Zero I was thinking idly about this this morning - I'm off with a virus, so more time than usual - so much of what you take away from your childhood and teen experiences is down to luck rather than planning - we were very poor when I was growing up - single parent family, no spare cash at all - but I was a church organist as a teenager - I was paid £1 a service, which I used to spend secretly on ten Rothmans. Part of me hated being a church organist - having to show up every time - evensong - often there would be fewer than five people in the whole congregation - but I will never forget the amazing power and noise of that organ when I was practising on my own, the incredible quiet, the smells, the huge church key, the responsibility of unlocking the building all on my own. After I set off for university I didn't set foot in a church again until I got married years later - and I never go to church now as an adult. But the extraordinary gift of those years is that as an adult, I have a life full of music - I sing in choirs and I can read all kinds of music in the same way as I would read a page of words. Much better than my day job.

I have tried to pass the same gift onto at least one of my children - who is a rock drummer - somewhat cooler than a church organist.

Likewise a bit of a ramble!

My DM is in her 80s and can still recite vast tracts of Shakespeare and countless hymns and poems she learnt as a small child thousands of miles away from England.

My parents' choices for their children were very much founded on wanting the same high quality education for us as they had received elsewhere - as standard. That kind of education here was, and still is, considered "elite".

But I'm not sure there's anything cooler than being a church organist!